Endurance and the Demons of Acedia and Vainglory

Desiring to encounter bodies, which one must not obey, but rather do the opposite.

Do not give yourself to the thought of anger, fighting the one who is saddened by thought; nor again imagine more pleasure for the thought of fornication; for the one watches over the soul, while the other calls the soul toward the burning of passion; both make your mind dirty. And imagining idols even at the time of prayer and not offering a pure prayer to God, you immediately fall to the demon of acedia, who most especially falls into such states and tears the soul like a prey like a dog.

The nature of anger is to fight with demons and to struggle for some pleasure. Therefore, the angels, presenting to us spiritual pleasure and blessedness from this, urge us to turn our mind toward the demons; but they again, drawing us toward worldly desires, force the mind to fight against humans by nature, so that the mind, being darkened and falling away from knowledge, becomes a traitor to the virtues.

Take care of yourself lest you provoke any of the brothers to flee, and you may not drive away the demon of sorrow in your life, which becomes a stumbling block to you always at the time of prayer.

Gracious gifts extinguish grudges; and let Jacob persuade Esau, having come with gifts after four hundred, going out to meet him. But we, being poor, let us satisfy the need at the table.

When we fall to the demon of acedia, who divides the soul in such a way with tears, let us make the one part entreating and the other part being entreated, promising good hopes to ourselves and looking to the holy David: 'Why are you so sorrowful, my soul, and why are you disquieting me? Hope in God, for I shall still praise Him; the salvation of my face and my God.'

It is not necessary during the time of trials to leave the cell, feigning reasonable excuses, but to remain within.

To stand firm, to endure, and to receive all things that come bravely, but to exclude the demon of acedia entirely, for it is the heaviest of all and works most rigorously upon the soul. For fleeing such struggles and surrounding the mind clumsily teaches one to be cowardly and a deserter.

And our holy and most practical teacher said: Thus the monk must always prepare himself as if he were to die tomorrow, and again to use the body as if he were to live in it for many years. For the former, he says, cuts off the thoughts of acedia and prepares the monk more urgently; the latter preserves the body and always maintains its temperance equally.

It is difficult to escape the thought of vainglory; for what you do toward its destruction, this becomes for you a beginning of another vainglory. And not against every thought of ours do the demons oppose, but also some of these evils occur according to which we are accustomed.

I recognized the demon of vainglory to be pursued by almost all among the demons, and shamelessly standing over the falls of those pursuing virtue, making manifest to the monk a greatness of virtues. He who has grasped knowledge and reaps the pleasure from it will no longer be persuaded by the demon of vainglory, even when bringing to him all the pleasures of the world; for what could he promise greater than spiritual contemplation? Insofar as we are without knowledge, we eagerly work out the practical life, showing our purpose to God that we do all things for the sake of His knowledge.

Remember your former life and the ancient failings, and how being moved by passion, you passed over to the Christ-like apathy, and how again you came out of the world which has much and much a times humbled you. And consider this for me too: who is the one guarding you in the desert, and who is the one driving away the demons, gnashing their teeth against you? For such thoughts indeed produce humility, but they do not admit the demon of pride.